Here’s a special guest article from marketing legend, Dan Kennedy….

I happen to be a politics junkie and, therefore, a news junkie. I even write political columns, so I have to pay attention daily. But I learned years ago that it is the news media’s job to make every problem a crisis, every item of earth-shaking, life-altering importance. Few news events actually are. As a matter of fact, most things wind up being about as important as you permit them to be.

Few people think of themselves as news-makers.

All the world’s a stage, and on it there are players, but there are countless more spectators. It never dawns on people how much of their time is spent as a spectator, how little spent actually playing a game over which they exercise control.

Millions watch football on any given Sunday. Only a small cadre of coaches scheme to win their games on Sunday, a small number of players work hard all week to be mentally and physically prepared to win the games in which they compete.

It’s significant that the spectators rarely make news – the winning players and coaches do. And the spectators never get million dollar contracts to watch. They must pay for that privilege.

There is that old cliché, about three kinds of people: those who make things happen; those who watch things happen; those who wonder what the heck happened, why, and why they were left out!

There’s a lot of truth to the cliché. Most people act as if they are in a little boat set adrift in a vast ocean of circumstances beyond their control, rowing fast and frantically, looking about endlessly for someone to come to their rescue. Few are captains.

It’s my observation that exceptionally successful people are very deliberative and purposeful about three things, in this regard.

First, they act as captains. Every day – yes, every day – they set out on a charted course of their choosing; they never meander about aimlessly.

Two, they are “makers”, creators, doers. They make things happen, make things move forward, get things done, sometimes through sheer force of will and refusal to accept or excuse less. In doing so, they are even, from time to time, news-makers, to their clientele, in their industry, in their community.

Third, they seek association with people of this ilk, and abbreviate as best they can the time spent with or on people not so self-determining, self-motivating. They recognize just how powerful association is.

My friend, the late Jim Rohn said that given the bank balances of the five people you hang out with the most, he could “guess” your bank balance with great accuracy.

He also noted that rich people have big libraries, poor people prefer big TV’s – a way of asking you what sort of ideas you associate with most. A lot of people with 52″ plasma’s and TV’s in three or four rooms of the house say they have no time to read.

Most accomplishment or lack thereof is result of investment – not accident. Those who are endlessly, constantly disappointed with their incomes, businesses, lives, prefer believing in accident, luck, randomness as a comforting religion, but that’s delusional.

Examination of most success reveals controllable causes, notably that person’s investments of his time, energy, money, in association with productive and provocative ideas, and people who are in the game, not in the bleachers.

— By Dan S. Kennedy, serial entrepreneur, from-scratch multi-millionaire, speaker, consultant, coach, author of 13 books including the No B.S. series, and editor of The No B.S. Marketing Letter. FOR A SPECIAL FREE GIFT FROM DAN FOR YOU including newsletters, audio CD’s and more: visit: www.FreeDanKennedyNewsletter.com

Here’s a special guest article from marketing legend, Dan Kennedy….

I am ex-boozer.  For a while, after quitting, I had to decide not to have a drink everyday. Now it’s on rare occasions that I consciously decide not to. I became a non-drinker.

But I’m also a diabetic, and every meal I decide not to eat something toxic to me – or to eat a little – or to say the hell with it.

Every doughnut shop I drive past is a decision. Every milkshake I don’t swing into a drive-through for, a decision.

Most days I work in complete isolation. No one sees me at all. So I must decide whether to work on the planned work or welcome a distraction or be de-railed by a new urgent.

We are the sum total of all the “to” and “not to” decisions we make, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, situation by situation.

Most successful achievers can point to a handful or two of Events Of Monumental Importance in their lives, and too often credit those, or observers credit those, for everything. Rarely so.

Each of those capitalized on only because of countless, smaller decisions and choices.

Mark Burnett met Donald Trump essentially by chance, thus ‘The Apprentice’ born. No. Burnett had built a track record; Burnett recognized the opportunity; Burnett had the idea; Burnett had the guts to go pitch it; Burnett had polished presenting skills, to make an effective pitch; Burnett had mentally organized his pitch.

Many of our daily decisions contribute to or take away from our growing preparation for opportunities.

What you read, what and who you study, the breadth and depth of knowledge you develop, the portfolio of skills you expand and polish, the people you link yourself to and associate with – these are all “deposits” to a growing reservoir of “capital” that, when the right opportunity shows itself, you have ready to invest.

But some, maybe much of what you waste time on, mental junk food you consume, lack of serious study and skill development, poor associations – these are all “withdrawals” that drain your capital reserves, so that when opportunity confronts, you are too weak to take advantage.

EVERYTHING is either a deposit or withdrawal. Every item of food consumed. Every minute given to choices of books, newsletters, TV programs, movies, dinner companions, conversations.

When you see somebody in very good health at age 80 or in surprisingly poor health at 45, don’t be so foolish or generous as to chalk it up to good or bad genes; it is as much or more about deposits and withdrawals.

When you see somebody living in a paid-for million dollar home and captaining a thriving business, and see someone else losing his home to foreclosure and boarding up a failed business, do not be so naïve or liberal as to chalk it up to luck, or upbringing, or the ever-popular circumstances beyond one’s control. It is as much or more, deposits and withdrawals.

There was a very popular bestseller titled ‘Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff.’ Popular because the masses do not want to sweat anything. At all. Period.

But successful achievers know how necessary sweat is. And they know there are no decisions so small you need not sweat ‘em. Every one counts because they all add up.

— By Dan S. Kennedy, serial entrepreneur, from-scratch multi-millionaire, speaker, consultant, coach, author of 13 books including the No B.S. series (NoBSBooks.com), and editor of The No B.S. Marketing Letter. FOR A SPECIAL FREE GIFT FROM DAN FOR YOU including newsletters, audio CD’s and more: visit: www.FreeDanKennedyNewsletter.com

One of my earliest mentors had his office walls adorned top to bottom, side to side, with big, handwritten signs intended as cautions to others as well as reminders for himself. If you’ve ever been in a direct sales environment, you’ve probably seen such a place. Two of the biggest signs read “Thumb-Suckers Not Welcome Here” and “You Can Hire Spellers For Minimum Wage”.

He was a millionaire, and in one company, held a commission record at the time of slightly over $1-million earned in 37 months. But he could not spell. And flaunted it. He said that, since you could hire perfect spellers for minimum wage, he preferred learning and thinking about more important things, things it was not so easy to pay cheaply for.

He was talking about the concept of value. Value is fundamental.

In boom times or tough times, in big business or small business or any kind of business, even in any occupation or career, the person who makes himself most valuable and creates the most value for others (as they perceive it and are willing to pay for it) always prospers.

If your income isn’t where you’d like it to be, you’re not creating enough value.

His advice to me, said less elegantly than this, was to find and master something so valuable to enough other people that they will cheerfully pay just about anything for it, and devote all your time and energy to selling and doing that.

Most people who fail to achieve their aspirations in business do the exact opposite. They let themselves be consumed doing things of low value, then are surprised to discover they reap small harvests.

To be fair, getting yourself organized and disciplined to be relentlessly focused on creating value by making yourself more valuable – daily – by always learning more, acquiring and processing more information, running more experiments, making more useful contacts; and by doing the most valuable things you can do is not an easy task.

I’ve written four different books that reveal different paths converging at this same point. Association with others working on this same skill is helpful.  Dis-association from those not dedicated to this premise is also helpful.

Which brings me to the other sign.

He had zero tolerance for adults still sucking their thumbs. If you wanted to whine and cry like a baby when something didn’t go your way, you were told to go home, stick a pacifier in your mouth and hug your blankie.

At the time I’m writing this, the economy’s a bit tough and bruising and I hear too many adults who sound like babies. Actually, it’s just one of those times that the entire economy woke up on the wrong side of the bed grumpy and is telling everybody: thumb-suckers not welcome here.

And this must be your personal policy, if you are to prosper and thrive while most others do not. Which is, incidentally, all the time; fewer than 5% have 95% of the wealth flow to them all the time; the disparity is just more stark, the judgment of the critical marketplace more harsh and quick and visible at some times than others.

You need zero tolerance for thumb-sucking, personally, or by anybody you permit in your world: staff, associates, vendors, even customers, friends, neighbors, media voices you listen to, authors you read.

The power of association is an enormously powerful, irresistible force, for good or evil, for gain or loss, for growth or regression. You dare not discount or underestimate it. You can and should strategically use it for advantage.

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– By Dan S. Kennedy, serial entrepreneur, from-scratch multi-millionaire, speaker, consultant, coach, author of 13 books including the No B.S. series (NoBSBooks.com), and editor of The No B.S. Marketing Letter. FOR A SPECIAL FREE GIFT FROM DAN FOR YOU including newsletters, audio CD’s and more: visit:
www.FreeDanKennedyNewsletter.com